Protecting Our Tiny Friends: National Hermit Crab Day
Introduction Every year, on October 29th, we come together to celebrate National Hermit Crab Day. It’s a day not only to appreciate these fascinating creatures but also to raise awareness about the threats facing wild hermit crabs and the importance of their conservation. Hermit crabs are unique and often misunderstood animals that play a vital role in maintaining the health of coastal ecosystems. As we mark this special day, let’s take a closer look at the challenges these remarkable creatures face and what we can do to protect them. The World of Hermit Crabs Hermit crabs are fascinating creatures, known for their peculiar habit ofRead More →
2023 Hermit Crab Halloween Advocacy Handout
Looking for a fun but easy way to educate and advocate for hermit crabs? We got you! Print this two sided hermit crab coloring page and hand them out on Halloween! The back of the coloring page includes basic care information.Read More →
New Halloween Hermit Crab Coloring Pages for 2023
Find previous year’s pages here: Halloween Coloring Contest for ChildrenRead More →
Products for Managing Heat and Humidity in Your Hermit Crab Tank
Maintaining proper heat and humidity in your hermit crab habitat, or crabitat, is vital to the survival of your pet hermit crabs. Monitoring can be done with standard guages but if you are looking to automate monitoring I have some products to share! Read More →
Easter Hermit Crab Coloring Page
Paint eggs, not shells! Download the PDF and color your own!Read More →
I Work at a Pet Store, How Can I Help Hermit Crabs?
I Work at a Pet Store, How Can I Help Hermit Crabs? We often are asked by pet store employees how they can help the hermit crabs being sold while observing Corporate mandates and not getting themselves in trouble. The struggle is real! Read More →
A Holiday Feast for Hermit Crabs
REMEMBER NO SEASONINGS OR ADDED SUGAR Safe to feed: Turkey (chicken, quail duck) – all parts, raw or cooked. Save the neck and giblet bag for the crabs! Turkey bones (Crack them open so they can get at the marrow). Potatoes – any type, raw or cooked. No eyes or green parts of the peel. Veggies raw or cooked (no onions or garlic). Dark leafy greens must be cooked first to reduce oxalic acid content. Nuts ground, whole, chunks. Eggs – all parts, raw or cooked. Fruits Sour fruit will not be eaten (for example: they will not eat lemon) Oils pure and cold pressedRead More →
Hermit Crabs and Mold
Mold in general is universally viewed as unsafe and to be avoided.Read More →
2020 Crab Con Rewind
Now free to the public! These presentations aired at the 2020 Crab Con International Conference. You can skip through the playlist to watch specific presentations or watch the Daily Compilation Videos – Titled Day One, Day Two, Day ThreeRead More →
Is It a Rescue?
written by Stacy Griffith and Rose Marie Senary Purchasing a hermit crab from a pet store is not a rescue. ANY purchase of wild caught hermit crabs feed the pet trade cycle and sentences more hermit crabs to the same terrible fate. By ignoring the fact that a pet store neglects the animals they sell and giving them your hard earned dollars, you are feeding the cycle. Corporate offices at major chains ignore the demands for better care because it would affect their bottom line. So long as people continue to buy wild caught hermit crabs and other pets from them, they will continue doingRead More →
Why are sponges bad for hermit crabs?
Natural sea sponges are NOT bad for hermit crabs. In fact, they are a great food source. “But your website says not use to use sponges!” Yes. It does. However, there is some need for clarification here. The more accurate statement would be: Do not use sponges in the manner suggested by the pet store or packaging. Most pet stores and pet supply stores sell sponges as a multipurpose product. First, as a means of drinking without drowning. That, in and of itself, is amusing considering most pet stores don’t provide enough water for a fly to drown in let alone a hermit crab. HermitRead More →
Crab Con 2021 Survey
We’re collecting some info to help us plan Crab Con 2021! If you plan to attend please answer this brief survey:https://forms.gle/o1WRTY54Ex6EbfN97Read More →
A Message from Breeder Mary Akers
(Photo credit: Sherri Werdebaugh.) Calling all US AND INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS who want captive bred babies. I am working with an international wholesaler of captive-bred Caribbean reef fish (ORA) who is interested in carrying MY captive-bred babies. If you live in the US OR live overseas, and have been wishing you could get your hands on some of my babies, I need your help! If you have a local saltwater fish store, or a pet store that carries saltwater fish, would you please contact them and tell them you’ve heard that ORA is going to be carrying captive-bred babies and you want to get on theRead More →
Why are hermit crabs hairy?
Why are hermit crabs hairy? Those little ‘hairs’ you see all over the body and chelipeds of your hermit crab are not hairs at all. They are an extension of the exoskeleton and are called setae. A seta is an elongate projection with a more or less circular base and a continuous lumen; the lumen has a semicircular arrangement of sheath cells basally. [1] Revising the definition of the crustacean seta and setal classification systems based on examinations of the mouthpart setae of seven species of decapods A. GARM Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 142, Issue 2, October 2004, Pages 233–252 What inRead More →
Hermit Crabs – A Hands Off Pet
The Land Hermit Crab Owners Society recommends that hermit crabs only be removed from their habitat for an occasional visual inspection or photo. This is one of the most contested recommendations in our community. The LHCOS recommendation is based on what research has taught us thus far. We are still learning, research is still being conducted and we are following it closely. Land hermit crabs require humid air to breathe. When the relative humidity drops below 70% the gills begin to dry out. Over time the gills will become irreversibly damaged. How much damage they can sustain before death is not known. Land hermit crabsRead More →
Help Us Buy a Boardwalk Ad!
Help us spread our message! Most hermit crabs are purchased as a beach vacation souvenir from a shop that does not provide any care information. Some of these new owners find their way to our community and get the help they need. All of them are shocked, many feel duped and angry that they were not informed of the true expense of keeping hermit crabs. Imagine when they discover that a hermit crab’s life span rivals humans. So how can we reach these folks before they make a purchase? An ad on the boardwalk! A fun but educational and informative ad to quickly drop someRead More →
Hermit Crab Planner – Custom Designed Pages
The Choya Log – A Journal for Keeping Hermit Crabs As a hermit crab owner of 15+ years I created the book I needed and I hope you will enjoy it too. Custom made pages for specifically for tracking your hermit crabs and crabitat. Over 200 pages of crabby goodness in full color. No pre filled dates allow you to start your planner any month of any year and still get a full 12 months of use. Use the monthly calendar pages to track details like daily tank temperature and humidity, who is digging or resurfaced. Week day pages allow you to document noteworthy behaviorsRead More →
Sherri W.
I’d kept hermit crabs for roughly a year and a half prior to discovering the CSJ site, and – like many others – assumed I’d been properly caring for them, negating the need to further research their requirements…or anything about them, really. One doesn’t exactly discover troves of books dedicated to hermit crabs the way one discovers the same in regards to dogs, cats, birds, or any of the other, more typical household pets. Subsequently, one simply decides that not much must be known about them (or that what is known is too boring and/or limited to bear repeating in guide after guide), and soRead More →
A Change in Our Lexicon
Currently we use the blanket term PPS as a way of explaining why hermit crabs die so soon after purchase. PPS or Post Purchase Stress The use of the word stress has always bothered me as it implies a mental or emotional state of mind. Really the method is designed to reduce post purchase death due to physical stress on the hermit crab’s body due to lack of care prior to coming home with you. I also don’t like the term ‘destress’. Really it should be more like recuperate or recover. I would like to move away from using the term destress. It again impliesRead More →
Get Pre-Approved to Adopt Captive Bred Hermit Crab Babies
We are excited to finally open up the applications for this year’s captive bred babies born at Hermit House Breeding! Full details; 2020 Captive Bred Hermit Crab Adoption Application is Now Open! Donate to the cause!Read More →
Michaella R
The crab street journal is an evolving group that helps many through all the many ups and downs. It’s a place to cultivate knowledge and love for hermit crabs, which at one point was difficult for me to find. I love my crabs and wanted to offer them more, which is how I found the group. With their help, I was able to help my oldest crab, bubba, have the nicest tank I was ever able to provide him and his friends.Read More →
Ashley R
CSJ has seriously helped me help my crabbies thrive. They were given to me by a family member in a chicken wire type cage with a sponge and pellet food. I had no idea how to care for a hermit crab and so glad I was able to find The Crab Street Journal and get them a proper set up and a start to a better life! Thankfully I haven’t experienced an emergency yet but I know the first thing I will do is search the files in the group and contact an admin. Thank you for all you do!!Read More →
Jeanne S
The Crab Street Journal is my go to for crabs care . Without them and Stacy there would be no market , site or LHCOS group . Our team is excellent because of the educational information on the CSJ and its many pages and groups . I can see every day the correct info going out to improve the lives of hermit crabs around the world . My life would be very lonely and sad without them .My favorite crab right now are the Baby Crabs also possible because of t CSJ.Read More →
CSJ’s 18th Birthday Giveaway Winner
This year’s winner by random drawing is Sherri W! Read her Testimonial Sherri’s prize includes: $20 credit for shells with Ken Lipe 1 Crab Con 2019 t-shirt 1 Pewter Hermit Crab necklace from TaylorCustom.com $25 prize pack from Cholla Queen – Courtney Iris KarrRead More →
Ashlyn T
I have not been in this group for very long. My crab was in a 2.5 gallon tank with about two inches of Ecoearth in the tank. I knew barely anything. Almost instantly when i joined I found out everything I did wrong. When i read the files I realized they’re so organized and very easy to understand. This group is so nice and I don’t see any arguments, ever. Every time anyone has an issue, they get feedback back almost immediately. The people here are genuinely nice, and lots of groups will mislead you, but not this group. I just want to thank youRead More →
The Crab Street Journal turns 18 years old!
We turn 18 years old on October 17th 2019! To celebrate we are giving someone a prize pack! $20 credit for shells with Ken Lipe 1 Crab Con 2019 T-Shirt 1 Pewter Hermit Crab Anatomy necklace from www.TaylorCustom.com Courtney Iris Karr has donated a $25 prize to the winnings!! Entering is easy! Write a testimonial about CSJ and submit a photo of your favorite hermit crab before October 31st Midnight CST and you will be entered to win! Winner will be drawn at random. Submit Your Testimonial Here*~*Submit Your PhotoRead More →
Acurite Temperature and Humidity Monitor for Hermit Crabs
To successfully keep land hermit crabs as pets owners must provide a tropical environment that is both warm and humid. In order to maintain the proper heat and humidity gauges are required. The most popular product among hermit crab owners is the Acurite Temperature and Humidity Digital Monitor. This unit has proven to be reliable and a great value for the money. Most gauges don’t last long in the high humidity of a hermit crab tank but the Acurite out performs other more expensive gauges. Your Acurite Temperature and Humidity Monitor should be located inside of the tank but not touching the substrate or directlyRead More →
2019 Crab Con Epilogue
I’m honestly not even sure where to begin. Was Crab Con a success? Yes! Was it fun and amazing? Yes! Will we do it again? Yes! Most of my emotions leading up to the event were doubt, anxiety and excitement all mixed together. Today, I am proud, heartfull, thankful, amazed, impressed and inspired. More than once on Saturday I started to tear up, I was just so happy. For me, this event could not have happened without a lot of support from a lot of people. I am so very thankful for: My momma for being my helper, my product bagger and my pet sitter. MyRead More →
Hermit Crab Vacation Care
We all go on vacation or have to be away from home for an extended period at some point. Your hermit crabs will need someone to check on them at least once during a seven day absence. Ideally someone can check on them every other day but not everyone is able to arrange a regular check in. Be sure to write up an instruction sheet for your pet sitter. Include a link to this website, our emergency form and even our Facebook group so that we can help them if they need us. If your sitter isn’t a crab keeper they may have trouble rememberingRead More →
Kim V joins the Local Rep Team!
The Local Reps team warmly welcomes their newest member: Kim V joins the team from Indiana! Kim says: Hi! I’m Kim so glad to be here as a local rep! I’m from Northwest Indiana (chesterton, IN). I am a stay at home wife due to health issues. Animals have always been in my life from when I was a little girl to when i was a teen and we started rescuing greyhounds. Around then is when I really saw what behind the scene things happen to animals especially their treatment. So when I got into hermit crabs 2 years ago when my husband and IRead More →
Hermit crab lesson plans!
CSJ is excited to announce the return of our hermit crab lesson plans! The lesson plans were originally created by Vanessa Pike-Russell. They’ve now been updated and expanded upon, including visual aids! As with everything on CSJ, these are available free of charge to anyone interested. DOWNLOAD We look forward to your feedback!Read More →
Ken Lipe
On Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/theshellstore?ref=pr2018_faveshops On Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/usr/mirrormaker Read More →
A Guide to Land Hermit Crab Pools
Welcome to Hermit Crab Pool Boy Training 101! We hope the following information will cover hermit crab water pools from a-z. If we didn’t cover something here please feel free to comment or contact us. Let’s dive right in, the water is fine! Your tank should have two types of water bowls or pools: ocean water made from marine-grade salt and freshwater. Tap water contains beneficial minerals and metals so we discourage the use of distilled or otherwise purified water. Tap water must be treated with a product like Seachem Prime to make it safe for use. Prime also binds ammonia. In our testing, ammoniaRead More →
Simon
Hello, my name is Simon! I found out about this website about a year ago, and made my account last summer. I like the usage of helpful information posted through many of the helpful guides and informational links they have on their website! I have also enjoyed the fact that they open contests for anyone to enter their crabby pictures in for prizes given out to the winners of each contest. I recommend this website to newcomers that are looking to seek help with their crabitat and hermit crabs! 🙂Read More →
Shipping to Canada is here!
We’ve had so many requests for shipping to Canada so we are pretty excited to announce our first step in that direction. Being able to print shipping from home and accurately calculate with the software I have has been a bit challenging. To get us up and running I’ve decided on a simple set up. All packages will be shipped via USPS First Class International with a maximum weight of 4lbs. Rates are based off the weights and prices listed here: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm#_c341 I hope this works smoothly but I do ask for your patience if we encounterRead More →
Local Reps Welcome Heather!
CSJ and LHCOS is proud to announce the addition of a new Local Representative to our team! Heather K. joins the team from North Carolina. She is our second Local Representative in NC. Meet Heather: “I started Crabbing when I was around 8 years old and was given the general information that most pet stores/ beach shops give. I had 2 hermit crabs that passed on after about a year. Then 2 years ago, I got my son his first hermit crab from the beach shop and the crab unfortunately dropped all of his limbs and passed the next day. I then began to research andRead More →
Managing grain mites in the crabitat
Written by Anne Grady Food mites, more properly called grain mites are something that can be found in any tank at any time. The first thing to understand is that they did not come from the crabs, having hermit crabs does not cause you to have food mites. Food mites come into your home through the everyday things you buy at the grocery store. Anything that contains grain can have food mites. Oatmeal, grits, breakfast cereal, noodles, flour and rice are a few examples. In general you won’t see them and they are harmless, but that box of corn meal or pancake mix that getsRead More →
Coenobita clypeatus mating video and egg fertilization photos
(Click the link to view the video and photos) Stacy’s hermit crabs are mating again!Read More →
Mary and Sara join the Local Rep team!
I could not be more proud to announce that our team continues to grow! Two more amazing folks have joined our team. Please join me in a warm, crabby welcome for our newest Local Reps!! First up is Sara from Ontario. That means if you live in Ontario, she is your local rep. Given the size of Canadian provinces it is a bit challenging for one person to effectively cover the entire region but our folks will do their best to help you find local resources. “I live in Ottawa, Ontario. I’m a mother of two crazy kids and 6 crabs! There isn’t much IRead More →
Caroline F
I love the Crab Street Journal! I own nine hermit crabs and, when I have a question I go to this website. I love how the Crab Street Journal always says “No to painted shells”.Read More →
Two more Local Reps join our team!
We are so excited to announce two brand new additions to our growing Local Rep Family! First let’s meet Trevoria F. she joins us from Washington. That means if you live in Washington, she is your local rep and can provide information about resources in your area in addition to trustworthy hermit crab care advice. “My first experience with hermit crabs was in the early 90s, when I won 3 of them (Bobby, Peter, and Greg) at the state fair. Fast forward to early 2017, when I decided to get a “small simple pet” to keep on my desk at work. Bought a crabRead More →
Land Hermit Crab Shell Guide
A hermit crab’s shell is his life sustaining home and his protection from predators and desiccation. Hermit crabs take up residence in discarded gastropod shells and can not make their own shell. “For the vast majority of crustaceans which we call hermit crabs, the behavior patterns by which individuals utilize empty gastropod shells as shelter are critical to the crab’s existence. Orientation to shells, selection of a shell to enter, entry of a shell, and subsequent living the shell are all behaviors which directly affect the Darwinian fitness of an individual crab. Failure to find or efficiently enter a shell at all can rapidly andRead More →
Airborne Irritants and Hermit Crabs
Land hermit crabs breathe through a modified gill. It is important to protect the gills from strong fragrances, essential oils, candles, household cleaners, chemicals, smoke insecticides and other airborne irritants. Be mindful of what you spray or use near the crabitat even if your tank is fully sealed. Residual product may still be in the air when you open your tank. If you are forced to have your home sprayed for insects ensure your tank is fully sealed with saran wrap or something similar. Allow the house to air out at least 24 hours before unsealing your tank.Read More →
Humane euthanasia for hermit crabs
There may come a time when you find it necessary to euthanize your hermit crab to end it’s suffering. I’m providing the information that I found to be reliable. Please ensure that you are not confusing a surface molt with death. https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_least_drastic_method_to_kill_decapod_crustaceans_for_subsequent_preservation http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-is-the-most-humane-way-to-kill-crustaceans-for-human-consumption_625.htmlRead More →
